"All the President's Money"

It's been reported, by the Pentagon, no less, that the U.S has already spent $26 billion on the Afghan army. And we all know how that is going. The American military at its highest levels is extremely pessimistic about the Afghan army's capability to take over by October 2011, the date set by Obama to bring his troops home.

This is what happens when you go to a country, destroy its institutions - such as they were - and then try to rebuild it in your or somebody else's image. The Americans should have foreseen that a country as deeply divided as Afghanistan would be harder to put together again than Humpty Dumpty. But, then again, it is a particularly American conceit to think that every problem can be solved if you throw enough money at it.

Will the U.S never learn?

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